There’s not much sillier than Jeff relaxing with earphones, emitting sounds that are clearly meant to correspond with the phrases in New York, New York by Frank Sinatra. This is not a guy from a particularly musical family, let us say.
Today’s purchase was an iPod shuffle. It’s the most affordable form of iPod by far, and if--like Jeff--you hardly care in what order your favorite tunes are broadcast, then it might just be the device for you. I spent a good part of the afternoon loading various albums--jazz, saxophone, Sinatra, Johnny Cash--into iTunes, then feeding them into his tiny iPod shuffle. It is, in fact, so tiny (smaller than a matchbook even,) that I’d fear for its disappearance were it not snugly plugged into a set of sizable earphones. Fiddly earbuds, in this case, need not apply.
(Now he’s singing Blue Skies, with Willie Nelson. I’m surprised I can tell.) I’ve discovered a website--The Fisher Center for Alzheimer’s Research Foundation--which breaks down the classic seven stages of Alzheimer’s, giving clearer cut guidelines and milestones. “Stage of illness” had been a tricky thing to gauge. Jeff’s process has been, all along, more forceful in its consumption of his visual capabilities than his memory per se. Hence, a cursory review of the seven stages sometimes misses the points with which I can identify, in his case.
But Fisher has helped me out. Assuming you consider it helpful that I can now place him at stage 6a in a process where stage 7 represents the end-game. Stage 6 is subdivided into a through e. And it appears we’ve crossed the border from 5 to 6 on the following donkeys: We can no longer be counted on to put clothes on in the right order, let alone right-side up, and speech is, not infrequently, having trouble coming out in an articulate sequence. (Eventually it does, but it’s often a bit stumbly.) Apparently, by the time we’ve traversed b through e of stage 6, we can expect him to “manifest overt breakdown in the ability to articulate speech.” We will also see an end to continence. There’s one I’m looking forward to.
I was a little surprised to discover, in reviewing the mean durations of the stages, according to Fisher, that we are not far off the averages. Which means (if we stick with the program,) that we’ll complete all the requirements for Stage 6 in approximately 2.5 years. At which point--in Stage 7--relative mobility becomes one of the leading predictors of timetable.
I hope I’m not too morbid. It’s difficult, if one has a mind for research, NOT to probe into this kind of thing.
Ultimately, of course, one cannot call these things anymore than one can predict the stock market, and I’m very happy that listening to Sinatra, and singing along, with a complete lack of regard for key, is a source of happiness.
3 comments:
I remember my mother, being religiously oriented, singing along with hymns playing on a small tape player we bought her. She could do this even when it seemed she could remember nothing else.
Because I wonder if I might inherit her dementia, I began composing little songs with key important facts: My name is ..., I'm married to ..., my children are ....
My thought is that if my faculties fade, my songs might prolong my remembrance of the things that are most important to me.
What an interesting idea! Anyone who has lived with Alzheimer's must spend the rest of our lives at least wondering a little every time we forget a name.
Because my father died of Parkinson's Disease, I also notice the slightest tremble or jerky uncoordinated movement and think...maybe that's my destiny as well.
Not sure a song will help there, but maybe I should dribble a basketball for early physical therapy. Dad was a basketball coach for many years.
Basketball is popular in the Baltics. I recently accompanied my godson, who last year was named the best 14 year old in our country, on a brief tour of some American universities to get an idea of what the process might be to get him a Division 1 scholarship.
We visited the facilities and saw the practices at Georgetown, the University of Maryland, the University of Texas, and a couple of smaller schools in Alabama. He hopes to return to the US this summer to attend a summer camp run by the coaching staff at one of these schools.
While in Maryland, we ate breakfast at Gary's Grill, a place I knew about from reading one of your blogs. It was as good as you said it was. Thank you for the tip.
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